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Politics : Moderate Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (6895)	2/13/2004 2:10:41 PM
From: TigerPaw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20773

What about if the primary purpose is cultural and societal stability? Stability is best served by keeping your nose out of deciding who can be friends or lovers.

To: The Philosopher who wrote (6895)	2/13/2004 2:12:10 PM
From: The Philosopher	Respond to of 20773

To expand on that, there is certainly a biological imperative for human beings to procreate; otherwise the human race comes to an end. Marriage can be seen, if you wish, as a reward for the willigngness to take on the responsibility of the social unit which is primarily responsible for the perpetuation of the race. I remember a discussion in Heinlein's Starship Troopers where the instructor asks the student to justify why the system of only allowing veterans to vote (service was open to both men and women equally and had places for anybody who enlisted, whatever their physical or mental capacities; however, only those who had proved willing to defend the country with their lives were permitted the franchise.) The student tried all sorts of logical arguments. But in the end, the correct answer was "because it works." There are some things we do in life simply because over millenia of social history and experience they have proved to work.